The Jargon Buster Directory is your central resource for locating
an explanation to typical terms found for within all industries , professions
and governments.
Use our directory to locate and decipher jargon that you would like an
explanation for.
Keeping our directory up to date and to include all the spheres where jargon
is used is a never ending task for us. We have started with what we can locate
but but it is a vast subject and can be very niche specific.
Are you in a profession or industry that uses jargon that is NOT included
here? Then why not send us your own jargon buster text and we will include
it within our database. to say thank you we will provide you with a return
link back to your web site.
This is a bit ironic - most ordinary folk hate jargon yet public relations
of most companies invent their own public relations jargon? - that
is great for public relations isn't it!
Still, most public relations people are arrogant know it alls who think they
know best and how to spin and exploit situations to their own ends so its
not surising that this public relations jargon exists.
What other profession would invent a position called 'crisis manager' - surely
only companies that have a lot of crisis - would you want to deal with a
company like that? I thinks its always a bit worrying when any company
has its own department for public relations.
Simply reading some of the tems below in our public relations jargon
directory will show you that a lot of the time it simply deals with
fire engine management and damage limitation for the comapny concerned.
Public relations jargon
ABC - Audit Bureau of Circulation
The Audit Bureau of Circulations independently checks the circulation of
the national newspapers.
ACE - Advertising Cost Equivalent
A comparison between the cost of an advertising space and an equivalent editorial
piece. Gives PR a value.
ACE PR Value
An industry view that the value of PR is 2.5 times more than that of advertising
taking into account the high editorial involvement and the story content.
Advertising
A paid-for space in media that intends to promote a companys product
or service within the area that the media targets.
ADVERTORIAL
A paid for article that has the appearance of an editorial. Readers will
be able to identify the piece as promotion or as
advertorial.
Agency
A company in the business of creating advertisements, packaging and names
for products and services, as well as providing marketing and merchandising
advice and general business and promotional counsel to its clients. One type
of agency is a PR agency.
BARB - Broadcasters Audience Research Board
A service providing information on the audience levels every minute. This
information is available for ITV and BBC.
Byline
The name of the author or journalist written under the headline.
Circulation
The number of copies distributed by a publication. Circulation figures are
available for all major publications.
Collateral PR
Materials such as a brochure or printed information about a company. Often
supports media or packs and therefore obtaining links with the primary source.
Column Inches
A form of measuring PR success multiplying the length of a piece of editorial
by the number of columns.
Competitor Analysis
A comparison of PR success against competitors. Can be measured in various
ways.
Composition
The different types of audiences that make up the target audience.
Core Message
The angle taken in order to target the correct publications. Press releases
contain the core message.
Coverage
The amount of exposure given to a company in the media.
CPT - Cost Per Thousand
The cost efficiency of publications. Calculated by dividing the rate or specific
advertisement cost by the circulation or number of readers.
Crisis Management
A crisis can be described as a period of potential or actual damage to the
perception and/ or reputation of an organisation, individual or concept caused
or started by an unexpected event. Forward planning can prevent if not minimise
a crisis from happening.
Demographics
Information about the target audience. Such as age, gender, race etc.
DPS - Double Page Spread
Two pages of the same article covering both pages of an open publication.
Becomes more eye-catching to the reader.
Duplication
Where a person consumes more than one media. I.e. they may read The
Times and The Telegraph.
Editorial
Section of a publication written by a journalist such as an article or feature.
Executive Summary
Listing of key research findings.
Feature
An article of a detailed nature.
Frequency
Since people are exposed to more that one type of media, frequency is the
average number of times that your audience could be exposed to your message.
IPR - Institute of Public Relations
The leading public relations industry professional body for the UK and Europe.
IPRA - International Public Relations Association
An organisation based on membership for professionals in up to 95 countries.
Members gain valuable networking and professional advice.
Keywords
Specific words or phrases often within a press release. Many professionals
use keywords in order to search for specific publications or features.
Mechanical Data
The layout details of a publication including page size, width of the columns
and number of columns.
Media Type
Such as broadcast, national papers, consumer magazines and local or regional
newsletters.
NLA - Newspaper Licensing Agency
The NLA issue copyright licenses to companies who wish to copy articles.
Applies to all the national and some regional and foreign newspapers.
OTS - Opportunity To See (OTH - Opportunity To Hear)
The number of times the target audience is likely to see a marketing message.
Overlap
Houses that are able to obtain more than one ITV station due to living on
the boundaries of regions.
PR - Public Relations
Public relations (PR) is about reputation - the result of what you do, what
you say and what others say about you. Public relations is the discipline
which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support
and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort
to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an
organisation and its publics.
Press Release
A written announcement issued to the news media and other publications that
seeks to draw the public attention of a companys developments.
Pro-Active PR / Re-Active PR
Editorials that appear as a direct result of the PR. Re-active PR is where
the editorial has been placed as a result of the publication's input.
Publics
'Publics' are audiences that are important to the organisation. They include
customers - existing and potential; employees and management; investors;
media; government; suppliers; opinion-formers
RAJAR - Radio Joint Audience Research
An independent research body who monitor the performance of all radio stations
in the UK, whether BBC or commercial.
Rate Card
The cost published for advertising in any type of media.
Reach
The reach of a PR campaign is the total number of people within your target
audience that may see your message. Often referred to as coverage.
Readership
A general term that refers to the number of people reading a particular
publication. Includes both the individual that purchased the publication
and the other persons who have read the publication.
ROI - Return On Investment
A measure of budget spent to a campaign, versus the income generated through
the activity.
ROP - Run of Paper
It is an instruction to a publisher indicating that no special position is
sought for an advertisement, i.e. it can be placed in any convenient part
of the advertising space of the publication and is therefore charged at a
lower rate.
SCC RATE / Single Column Centimetre Advertising Rate
How advertising rates are calculated. It is generally the width multiplied
by the height of the publication column.
Sector Analysis
The measure of an industry sector's media coverage.
SERIES - Regional Newspapers
A number of publications covering a geographical area represented by the
same publisher.
Syndicated Articles
The same article published across a series. The copy and layout can sometimes
vary within the series.
Target Audience
This is the group of people you are trying to reach with your message.
Target Publications
Newspapers and magazines whose readership profile best matches a company's
target market.
Tonal Bias
Whether an article takes a positive, neutral or negative angle.
Tone Of The Media
An analysis tool that accurately reflects the mood of the press. Takes into
account the amount of editorial bias.
TV Regions
The transmission areas of each of the ITV companies cover specific UK
TVR - Television Rating
Percentage of specific demographic viewing a channel or programme, one TVR
represents 1% of target audience.
Universe
The total number of people that read, listen to and watch a type of media.